Except perhaps forthis piece of technology.

Except perhaps for .

Also, bars and restaurants in Brussels usually have Madame Pipi charging a few cents in exchange for a scoot, so I don’ t believe the last bit either.

The apartment has an online payment system, for a fee. I think they take credit cards, but most everyone pays with a check. The payment is still ‘by wire’, though – the apartment managers just use the check to get the info they need to take payment online (no fee to me), and trash the check. (So, yes, I can either do it totally online and automated, if I want to pay for the privilege, or I can write a check, walk it to the office, and give it to someone who then manually keys the details into their computer, with no fee. Prices come from supply and demand, not costs.)

On German banks – you pay a lot of fees. On my ordinary checking account, the first box of checks is free – I can get all free checks with an upgrade, though I just buy them from a third-party vendor (with wolves! And some puny percentage for Defenders of Wildlife). There is no monthly fee, if I maintain a reasonable average daily balance (low for ‘base’ accounts, higher for free-check versions, even higher for interest-bearing). Deposits and withdrawals are free using checks, at the counter, at the bank’s own ATMs, using the electronic debit system online in some circumstances, using my debit card either as a debit card (with pin) or as a “credit card” (without pin – it is Visa branded, but the transaction is still immediately posted to the checking account. The fees are different to the merchant, but the individual customer doesn’t pay them directly.). I pay fees if I use someone else’s ATM, to both banks, or if I use my bank’s online bill-payment system. (Sellers often provide access to a free(to me) one using a credit card.) Some American banks charge a fee for some of these services for some of their customers. This kind of account is why they run credit checks – they need to be sure you will be leaving enough money with them on an ongoing basis for the interest on the loans backed by that money to cover costs.

I do have a sort-of European-style checking account – no checks, everything done by ATM or debit card, and everything is totally online, up to and including the statements. Going to the website is free, online bill-pay is free (I think – I only use it to backstop Paypal) using the debit card is free, using “in Network” ATMs is free, you can do deposits by mail or electronic transfer, both free. The bank is ING, which I think is Dutch (and everything is garishly orange-themed). They bought out Netbank when it failed – Netbank did have regular checks, but otherwise was fully online. ING even pays interest on the average balance, and has either no or something in the range of $50 minimum balance for the zero monthly fee (my normal bank has an interest option. (I don’t expect this to last forever – they are in the ‘accumulate market share’ period of their business model.) At this point, fees by banks (in the US) are pretty much gratuitous profit – real transaction costs are a few cents or tenths of cents for most transactions. I can’t imagine this isn’t the same in Germany. Virtually everything else can be paid for fee-free with a credit card if you have decent credit, and the grace period on a credit card is long enough that you can avoid any costs if you pay your bill monthly.

I’d guess this is different for non-white non-middle class types in the US. Note that a LOT of people in the US don’t have bank accounts – millions of adults. Most of these are “undocumented workers” from El Salvador or Mexico, who either don’t trust the banks or are trying not to leave a paper trail for “la migra”. They receive cash or paper checks from employers, (depending on the tax-honesty of said employer) cash the check for a fee at a check-cashing service (either a store-front check-cashing company or at Wal-Mart’s customer service desk – Wal-Mart is, as usual, cheaper), pay more fees to wire much of that money to their family in Mexico (again, to Wal-Mart, who are cheaper for international transactions than other options), and have to go around to a bunch of payment centers to pay their utility bills, often for a fee (in many cases, to Wal-Mart, who is a payment center for a lot of the utilities), and then pay rent with a cashier’s check, obtained for a fee (at Wal-Mart, of course). (Wal-Mart is often the lowest-cost bank-substitute for the poor, as well as the lowest-priced retailer.)

I think the difference is that Americans collectively seem less inclined to accept anything ‘collectively’. And particularly less inclined to accept top-down innovations (and ‘innovations’) designed by panels of experts and imposed by government fiat. So you end up with a messier system where all the options from archaic to bleeding-edge are available as the government is unwilling to dictate which ones are out, and which ones we’ll all be using now, like it or not.

Consequently, in the U.S. you can pay here with debit card w/pin. Or a credit card. Or EFTs through an online banking system. Or direct withdrawal. Or cash. And god knows why, but ladies (particularly older ladies) seem to love their checkbooks. And they all vote. Personally, I write very few checks, but they are handy occasionally. My bank does not send back the canceled checks, but makes digital images of the checks available for free through their online banking system, which has been handy a time or two when I needed proof of payment.

I guess the Rorschach test here is the metric system. I love it that Americans said hell no to the universal imposition of the metric system. Having used both, I think the English system is inherently better for cooking and carpentry (and, in any case, our homes are already built with 2×4s on 16” centers and cookbooks are already in cups and teaspoons). I’m indifferent between km and miles for driving, but there was no reason to waste money re-doing all the signs. And for science & engineering, the use of the metric system is obvious. I see no problem with one system for technical use and another for daily ‘human’ uses. Practically, all it means is that it’s necessary to have a set of metric sockets and hex wrenches. And the predictions by official experts that failure to switch would mean doom for the American economy and technology turned out to be so much nonsense.

Checks in the U.S. are free and easy.

Well, to a point: if you happen to run out of the box you get from your bank, there’s often a charge for new ones. And there’s a thriving third-party market in weird and wonderful custom designs, which to my expat perspective is as weird as the lack of a standard prescription form for doctors. (Though, on that point: paper prescriptions are pretty much extinct in the US, but the standard green sheet of paper, redeemable at any pharmacy, persists in the UK.)

What do you mean by “wire transfers”?

A transfer of funds over what is called the “fedwire,” a system operated by the Federal Reserve, which is used to transfer between banks and brokerages and so on. Individuals do not, AFAIK, have access, but must go through an institution to make a wire transfer over this system. The advantage is that the money goes through on the same day, and is instantly available to the recipient. Similar systems are available in Europe and elsewhere, and they interconnect.

This is different than electronic payment systems banks make available to theoir customers over the internet.

And why would they charge you “for receiving the transfer”?
Looks like they´re ripping you off.

You have answered your own question.

Ah, but a check is still a piece of paper.
And who knows if your check doesn´t “bounce back”?
….
In my experience – unless you deal with black-market workers who prefer cash – a debit card is preferred.

Nonetheless many people prefer them. Of course they ask for identification and so on, unless dealing with a regular customer, and bouncing a check is not cost-free, so there are safeguards. It still happens, naturally, but it may be that the cost to the merchant of the occasional bad check is less than credit card processing fees.

Few retail businesses – primarily the occasional restaurant – can survive if they take only cash or debit cards. Taking credit cards is almost a necessity, and some are willing to take checks, certainly from regular customers.

That is, I think, as close as you can get in a state that ratified the Maastricht Treaty to a real, actual example of the philosophical debate as to the validity of voluntary enslavement. Do I get some sort of prize for steering a thread about airline toilets back to Rawls?

let the other half a dozen waiting people have their shot.

I know long haul flights are dull, but they’re not that dull.

Tick, done.

Less simply, but I think more accurately, put: a German debit card is accepted everywhere in Germany.

Neither my British (Visa) debit card nor my Dutch debit cards have ever shown the slightest sign of being accepted in Germany. (The EC is said to be contemplating doing something about this, of course, but it is unlikely to apply retroactively.)

The nearest German Aldi to my house in the Netherlands even has a sign on the door in impeccable Dutch reminding retail-touristes that plastic is a non-starter, and I recently had the pleasure of interpreting for an American colleague who had just had a large trolley-full of stuff rung up (not at Aldi) and then discovered that none of the means of payment at his disposal were acceptable to the cashier. (Luckily there was a cash-machine (“ATM”) in the foyer.)

Bernard,

In the US at least there is a difference between wire transfers and the kinds of electronic payments systems that banks have available for their customers. Funds moved by wire transfers are, as has been noted, immediately available, but there is a fee for this, in the range of $10-12 in my experience. (What is particularly annoying is that my bank charges for receiving the transfer – making me pay to make a deposit in effect).

What do you mean by “wire transfers”?
I assume that any money transfers made between banks in Germany are probably using the Internet (although a secure form of the Internet :) ).
As in, I authorize a money transfer from my bank account (local thrift) to a bank account in another German state. So local thrift computers—> state thrifts computer server center—> then either to a another state thrifts computer server center or the national server center of a private bank—> local thrift computer or local branch of a national bank.

Takes 1-2 days. Probably reasonable once you know that any bank involved wants to slow down the money transfer. :)
(The technology certainly allows faster transfer times.)
As in, for 1-2 days they can play around with our money. Multiply that with a million transfers every day and the overnight interest rate profits suddenly promises real profits for the banks.

And why would they charge you “for receiving the transfer”?
Looks like they´re ripping you off. Any bank likes money transferred to them. It allows them to use your money overnight to make a profit for them.

The consumer electronic payment systems usually involve no fees. For some vendors, like utility companies for example, the payment is made overnight. Smaller ones, not set up to receive electronic payments, are actually just issued checks by the bank, and this takes at least as long as mailing a regular check, though it is more convenient.

That seems ridiculous. Don´t the smaller ones have bank accounts too?
A company (large or small) doesn´t need to be “set up to receive electronic payments”. The banks where they have their accounts need to be able to deal with electronic money transfers.

I am a partner in a small business here in Germany.
We never thought we needed our own system to “receive electronic payments”.
When we write a bill, we just include at the bottom the 2 business bank accounts we have. Leaving our customers a choice. :)
If we received a check, we would have to go to the bank and deposit it there. Filling out some forms and costing us time. To say the truth, none of our customers ever tried to write us a check. If they did we´d immediately be suspicious.

And I´m not even mentioning the fact that some letters might be lost.
How would we prove that a letter with a check didn´t reach us? Whereas in the current situation we just have to look at our bank statements. They advised us that they paid us. And if the bank statements 3-5 days later don´t prove their statement we can start to ask questions.

One reason checks are still used – the reason I still use them – is that some people prefer to be paid on the spot and don’t want to pay credit card processing fees. This includes many service workers – plumbers, piano tuners, and so on.

Ah, but a check is still a piece of paper.
And who knows if your check doesn´t “bounce back”?
Cash or a debit card however are direct payments. No question needed about cash. But a debit card is also depending on your overall financial health. :)
If the payment is authorized, you´ll have it immediately too.
In my experience – unless you deal with black-market workers who prefer cash – a debit card is preferred.

Simply put, a debit card is accepted everywhere in Germany. Just like cash.
A credit card is accepted in some places. A check won´t be accepted anywhere.
For the simple reason that a check can´t be checked immediately against your bank account (and its limits).